The digital rights campaign group, GreatFire.org, was one of the first organisations to flag the fact that internet protocol addresses used to let software access Gmail had become inaccessible in China.

"Those protocols are used in the default email app on iPhone, Microsoft Outlook on PC and many more email clients," it said.

"Chinese users now have no way of accessing Gmail behind the GFW [great firewall]."

Google's data suggests there is still, however, a low level of Gmail use in China.

The Wall Street Journal has also reported that some users had reported Gmail access being restored to their mobile devices.

The Chinese government has neither confirmed nor denied that it was behind fresh restrictions.

"The past two years have seen a consistent tightening of all kinds of censorship on the internet and media," said Jeremy Goldkorn, founder of Beijing-based media tracker Danwei.

"There is an increasingly aggressive attitude towards what they [Beijing] call 'internet sovereignty' and they are confident about talking about internet censorship in positive terms."

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